


Riverlight

by ifreet



Category: Firefly
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-02-27
Updated: 2007-02-27
Packaged: 2017-10-10 09:14:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/98046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifreet/pseuds/ifreet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A tiny character study of River</p>
            </blockquote>





	Riverlight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iceaffinity](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=iceaffinity).



The world was the world, and a ship and the black, and she was a girl and a river both. And the days were the same ("hush, keep your secrets") and different both, but the difference between days of planet and moon were not so great as between days of River and not-River. On days of not-River, she found it hard to remember that River existed.

Simon existed. Simon was constant and always Simon, true and sad and sometimes angry ("but not at you, mei-mei, never at you," he lied) and her responsibility on the days when she was River. He needed a lot of looking after, she'd said. She thought.

Today, River was doing reconnaissance. Looking after Simon, who was not as clever as he thought, so it was good that he had a devious sister. Kaylee had a room of lights and a pink dress and a warm-light feeling toward River's brother.

"Oh, I loved these!" Kaylee said as she lifted the book from River's hand. "Still do, really."

Kaylee was smiling at the book. The book had a curved spine and blunted edges. Simon liked when Kaylee smiled at him. Therefore, Simon needed to know what was in the book.

"Did you want to borrow it?"

River considered this. "Is it a symbol?"

"No... it's just a story."

She grinned. "Ok."

Later, Simon saw her with the book and smiled and said he was happy to see her reading again, so she couldn't give the book to him. So she sat on the catwalk, knees tucked under her chin, and stared at the book resting beside her. ("You lose yourself in those books," said her mother, dressed for dinner in pearls like the moons.)

"I know," she said to the memory, or she said in the memory. Did Mother know she was lost? Simon thought she did, but the mother he remembered was cold and remote as the moon, the inconstant moon, and made no sense at all.

River shivered, though she was never cold aboard Serenity. Except the once. Exceptions make the rule. She opened the book, let the pages slip through her fingers like water. The book held no memories, only words.

"Be brave," she told herself. "It's only a story."


End file.
